Reporter Who Called Out Trump’s Press Secretary Just Broke His Silence On Viral Rant

Brian Karem made national headlines yesterday for interrupting deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the middle of her inflammatory and unchecked tirade against the press during a briefing yesterday. In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Karem, the Montgomery County Sentinel executive editor and Playboy columnist, slammed the White House’s restrictive behavior toward the media as unconstitutional.

“We can’t take the bullying anymore… The reporters that I know in that room, even Breitbart, those people are responsible. For the government to sit there and undermine, essentially what is very essential checks and balances system ― it’s disheartening. It’s unnerving. I can’t take it anymore.”

Karem’s viral tirade against the deputy White House press secretary was universally praised following an onslaught of restrictive moves by the White House to limit the press’ access. Karem himself explained to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that the clash was “a long time coming.”

Trump’s White House has made antagonizing the free press a cornerstone of this administration. From campaign ads decrying the “mainstream media” as “fake news” to tweets from the President himself on the same matter, Trump lobs these insults with as much consideration as any other bombastic rhetoric that he thoughtlessly spews on a daily basis.

The failing @nytimes writes false story after false story about me. They don't even call to verify the facts of a story. A Fake News Joke!

As the White House continues its assault on the press and our First Amendment freedoms, more people should and will follow in his footsteps. “It’s got to be stopped,” he explains, “and more of us have to stand up to it every day.” He was among the first to do so, but he certainly won’t be the last.